If you’ve been following the news, you’ll know that while Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has been doing quite well in terms of sales, regulatory scrutiny surrounding some of its business practices has been steadily growing. More specifically, the eCommerce giant has come under severe for how it allegedly handles third-party seller information, with many critics saying that Amazon uses this info to create rival products to put competitors on its platform out of business. With antitrust probes around the world continuing to develop, Amazon CEO and billionaire Jeff Bezos said that he’s now willing to testify before the House of Commons.
More specifically, Amazon’s lawyers told House members that Bezos would be willing to testify alongside other leaders of big tech companies sometime this summer. Although he won’t be there by himself, Bezos seems like he will be there in person to answer some potentially challenging questions surrounding how his company handles independent sellers on his platform.
“We are committed to cooperating with your inquiry and will make the appropriate executive available to testify,” said a letter to lawmakers from Amazon’s lawyers. “This includes making Jeff Bezos available to testify at a hearing with the other CEOs this summer.”
Amazon’s chief executive wasn’t the only one contacted by House lawmakers recently. Other tech giants, including Google, Apple, and Facebook, have all been contacted by government officials to see if their CEO’s would testify as part of a larger probe against the tech sector. The letter from Amazon’s lawyers didn’t mention whether Bezo’s would be willing to testify if the other tech CEO’s were not present. At the moment, it’s unclear whether or not the other executives would be willing to show up.
Earlier this month, European Union officials also announced they were just about to launch another probe into Amazon. For years, rumors have been circulating that Amazon works to put independent sellers out of business by launching similar products at a lower price to put them out of business. Only recently have regulators really begun to investigate the genuineness of these rumors. If Amazon is found guilty, it’s hard to tell exactly what the repercussions could be in terms of fines or anything else.
Overall, shares of Amazon are still doing quite well, extending what’s been a strong 2020 so far. The company’s stock inched up 2% over the course of the day, seemingly indifferent to the news.
Amazon Company Profile
Amazon is among the world’s highest-grossing online retailers, with $233 billion in net sales and roughly $311 billion in estimated physical/digital gross merchandise volume in 2018. Online product and digital media sales accounted for 53% of net revenue in 2018, followed by commissions, related fulfillment and shipping fees, and other third-party seller services (18%), Amazon Web Services’ cloud computing, storage, database, and other offerings (11%), Prime membership fees and other subscription-based services (6%), product sales at Whole Foods and other physical store retail formats (7%), and advertising services and cobranded credit cards (4%). International segments constituted 32% of Amazon’s non-AWS sales in 2018, led by Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan. – Warrior Trading News
